John Dorsay Wood Sr.

Published 9:56 am Wednesday, October 21, 2015

John Dorsay Wood Sr., of Boulder, Colorado, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family.

He was born on the kitchen table in Vicksburg to Albert and Agnes Wood. He graduated from St. Aloysius High School and Mississippi State University with a degree in geophysics. After graduation, he enjoyed a short stint on the semi-pro baseball circuit while beginning his career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He stayed with the Corps until he joined the U.S. Navy’s Oceanographic Office in 1959. He was then initiated into the “Order of the Troops” on Aug. 17, 1960, on the USNS Michelson, T-AGS 23, when he sailed across the Arctic Circle.

In 1961 he joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in Fredericksburg, Va. at the Geomagnetic Center, where he stayed until 1966, when he moved on to Rockville, Maryland, to be the operations assistant to the chief of geomagnetism.

In 1971 he and his first wife, Afaf, put everyone in the station wagon and moved to Boulder, where he joined NOAA as the program leader, and in 1973 joined the USGS in Golden as the assistant chief of BGSG and BEGI.  He became the chief of the National Geomagnetic Information Center in 1991and remained so until his retirement in 1995.

Beyond his professional career, his family was his number one priority. He was very active in his children’s school and athletic lives serving as a school board member in Boulder County for many years, including serving as president of the Boulder Valley School District for 12 years.

He was the esteemed leading knight of the Tri-City Elks and the exalted ruler in the late 1990s. From leading the Indian Scouts in Maryland to coaching their athletic teams, to PTA, he and Afaf, who passed away in 1992, opened their home to many friends and family members throughout the decades. He became reacquainted with and married his high school sweetheart, Sheila Tuccio in 1994. He was a friend to all and a stranger to none.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Afaf Sarah Nosser Wood; and brothers, Jack and Buddy Wood.

He is survived by his wife, Sheila Tuccio Wood; brother, Albert Wood (Teresa); children, John Wood Jr. (Tara), Ellis Wood (Christine), Juli Alvarado (Miguel) and Lila Sharfi (Benjamin); Sheila’s sons, Jay Tuccio and David Tuccio; his grandchildren, John, Jeff and Katy Wood, Adam and Derek Wood, Miguel, Gabe, Emelia and Isabel Alvarado and David and Sarah Sharfi; and four great-grandchildren, Jordan, Everly, Archer and Piper.

Please help us honor John Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015, at St. Michael’s Catholic Church at 10 a.m. with a reception at the church to follow. May his love for us be sustaining and his memory be a blessing.